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History Happened Here — The ghosts of Lindenwald

KINDERHOOK — Halloween, the celebration based on an ancient Celtic festival that is celebrated in America on Oct. 31, has traditionally been associated with ghost stories. In that spirit, this reporter offers up a haunted history story for Register-Star readers.

Lindenwald, the storied mansion of eighth U.S. President Martin Van Buren, located in Kinderhook, has often been associated with tales of hauntings.

“It seems that whenever a book comes out on haunted houses in Columbia County, Lindenwald is in the mix,” said Judy Harris, a museum specialist for the site that is operated by the National Park Service.

Harris said the NPS took over Lindenwald in 1974 and opened it up to the public in 1986 after extensive renovation and archeological and architectural surveys.

Van Buren was president from 1837 to 1841. He purchased the estate in 1839, named it Lindenwald, and retired there after losing the next election to Whig candidate William Henry Harrison in 1840.

Built in 1797, Lindenwald has gone through many changes over the years. An addition was put on in 1849-50 while Van Buren was living there.

“There were three owners before Martin Van Buren,” said Harris.

The original structure was built by Judge William Van Ness. His son, Billy Van Ness, acted as the second to Aaron Burr in a duel with Alexander Hamilton in the summer of 1804.

Hamilton and Burr were prominent American politicians. Hamilton was the former secretary of the treasury and Burr was the sitting vice president at the time of the duel that ended with Burr mortally wounding Hamilton.

According to legend, Burr hid out at Lindenwald for three years in a secret windowless room. Harris called this a folk tale.

“We can’t find any evidence of a secret room,” she said. “There were additions and rooms were rearranged, but where it is supposed to be, there isn’t anything that would indicate it is there.”

Harris has heard that Burr is supposed to haunt Lindenwald. “I’ve heard stories of Aaron Burr’s ghost walking the property,” she said.

Harris admitted that she and other NPS employees have experienced unexplained phenomena while at the site. “I only experienced something once, in the many years I’ve been here,” she said. “I’ve smelled the pancakes.”

This, perhaps, needs some explaining. There have been many reports of this phantom scent believed to emanate from the breakfast preparations of the spirit of a woman known as Aunt Sally who was a cook in the Van Buren household.

Linda Zimmermann, in her 2003 book “Ghost Investigator: Hauntings of the Hudson Valley,” heard a similar story to Harris’ by former Supervisory Park Ranger Marion Berntson.

Berntson also apparently heard a woman’s voice when she was alone inside the residence.

Harris said that many of the alleged hauntings date to Van Buren’s tenure at Lindenwald.

Besides the mysterious pancake smell, Harris discovered something else unusual while working. After changing out the paper from equipment that measures room temperature and humidity inside Lindenwald several years ago, she discovered that there had been a huge spike in temperature recorded on the equipment on New years Eve. “We joked that the president must have had a big party that night,” she laughed.

There are older stories of sightings of “the Little Magician,” as Van Buren was known, but not since an apple orchard was cut down years ago, according to Zimmermann.

Harris said a former owner who lives in Florida and sometimes comes back for visits often regales the employees with stories of hauntings she experienced as a young woman.

According to Harris, other employees at Lindenwald have heard ghostly foot falls, children laughing and disembodied voices.

Lindenwald isn’t the only purportedly haunted house in the county.

Columbia County has a number of ghost stories and tales of hauntings, including some that have become American classics.

There is good evidence that “The Legend Of Sleepy Hollow” by Washington Irving was based in Columbia County, and more specifically Kinderhook, where Irving spent some time in 1809.

H. A. Von Behr, in “Ghosts in residence,” written in 1986, tells of a number of hauntings that occurred in the county, including his own experience with the 200-year-old ghost of a Quaker woman.

Harris believes there are so many local tales due to the number of old houses. “Most old houses have these kinds of stories associated with them,” she said.

A special thanks to village of Valatie historian Dominick Lizzi for suggesting the idea for this story.

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